After the egg recall hit home for me recently and we purged all the eggs, I was faced with a list of family meals for the week that lacked an important ingredient: eggs. Cornbread? Can't make it. I couldn't pack hard-boiled eggs for lunch, either, or cook scrambled eggs with cheese and tortillas for dinner (a family staple on deadline-heavy weeks - dinner in ten minutes!).
Since we don't each much meat, I couldn't turn to steaks and burgers to replace recipes with eggs in them. Instead, we drifted in the other direction, toward vegetarian and vegan meals.
A few months ago, I tried to eat vegan food once a week, after I read an article that suggested that avoiding animal protein might decrease inflammation. Even if this isn't true, I thought, it can't hurt to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains for a day. But I'm no vegan. I had trouble making it through the vegan days, as I craved dairy products too much in all their glorious forms (and craved their protein as well, no doubt).
Out of eggless necessity, though, I went back to my handful of vegan recipes and served an old dinner favorite, a vegan pasta with cauliflower recipe.
That took care of one night.
Then, while I was staring into my refrigerator, I realized that I could buy locally-grown eggs at the Farmer's Market. Eureka! I brought the kids to the market with one mission: find the egg stand. I steered them past the kettle corn and corn on the cob, past the peaches and strawberries, to get in line for the organic brown eggs. Once I had two dozen eggs in my bag, I relaxed. At last.
The spinach pie I made with the eggs later that night had a strong, almost gamey flavor, as I've become used to the more anemic eggs that I buy in the store. But I'll keep going back to the Farmer's Market for eggs, until I'm certain the recall is officially over.
Showing posts with label egg recall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label egg recall. Show all posts
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Egg Recall Reveals Larger Food Policy Problems
When I read about the recall of eggs shipped here to California, among other states, I printed out the list of the identifying numbers on the recalled cartons and opened my refrigerator. Lo and behold, there were two cartons of recalled eggs that we had purchased recently from the grocery store.
"We should become urban farmers," I told my husband, after he dispatched the eggs down the garbage disposal. At least then we would know where our eggs came from, instead of worrying about tainted eggs shipped from an Iowa mega-farm with a history of safety violations showing up in our West Coast home.
The Washington Post ran a fascinating article this week explaining how cost-cutting consolidation and growth in the egg industry have far outpaced regulation, which lead to the egg recall. "Just 192 large egg companies own about 95 percent of laying hens in this country, down from 2,500 in 1987," wrote the Post's Lyndsey Layton, and most of the eggs come from just five states. Although consolidation has accelerated over the past 20 years, regulation has not. Layton wrote that "the Food and Drug Administration, which has responsibility for the safety of whole eggs, had never inspected the two Iowa-based facilities at the heart of the massive recall that began 10 days ago."
Layton explained that different regulatory agencies divvy up who inspects chickens and who inspects eggs, and that some states do their own egg inspections while others (such as Iowa) do not. These circumstances make it easy for egg inspection to fall through the cracks. New legislation that would require yearly FDA inspections of egg producers is working its way through Congress now.
Unfortunately, legislation doesn't always protect public health. Take agricultural subsidies, for example. In a recent New York Times article about obesity in America, writer Natasha Singer explains that making healthier food cheaper could help Americans eat healthier and lose weight. Government subsidies for the products used in fast foods, though, make them more affordable for consumers than fresh fruits, vegetables, and healthier choices. Singer explains:
Not that everyone has to start a backyard farm; I can't even talk the family into getting a beehive. But I think that we do need to question how our food is produced and where exactly our food comes from and, if necessary, pay more to support food that is healthier and safer until changes in regulations and subsidy policies make that a reality.
"We should become urban farmers," I told my husband, after he dispatched the eggs down the garbage disposal. At least then we would know where our eggs came from, instead of worrying about tainted eggs shipped from an Iowa mega-farm with a history of safety violations showing up in our West Coast home.
The Washington Post ran a fascinating article this week explaining how cost-cutting consolidation and growth in the egg industry have far outpaced regulation, which lead to the egg recall. "Just 192 large egg companies own about 95 percent of laying hens in this country, down from 2,500 in 1987," wrote the Post's Lyndsey Layton, and most of the eggs come from just five states. Although consolidation has accelerated over the past 20 years, regulation has not. Layton wrote that "the Food and Drug Administration, which has responsibility for the safety of whole eggs, had never inspected the two Iowa-based facilities at the heart of the massive recall that began 10 days ago."
Layton explained that different regulatory agencies divvy up who inspects chickens and who inspects eggs, and that some states do their own egg inspections while others (such as Iowa) do not. These circumstances make it easy for egg inspection to fall through the cracks. New legislation that would require yearly FDA inspections of egg producers is working its way through Congress now.
Unfortunately, legislation doesn't always protect public health. Take agricultural subsidies, for example. In a recent New York Times article about obesity in America, writer Natasha Singer explains that making healthier food cheaper could help Americans eat healthier and lose weight. Government subsidies for the products used in fast foods, though, make them more affordable for consumers than fresh fruits, vegetables, and healthier choices. Singer explains:
The inflation-adjusted price of a McDonald's quarter-pounder with cheese... fell 5.44 percent from 1990 to 2007, according to an article on the economics of child obesity published in the journal Health Affairs. But the inflation-adjusted price of fruit and vegetables, which are not subject to federal largess, rose 17 percent just from 1997 to 2003, the study said. Cutting agricultural subsidies would have a big impact on people's eating habits....Government policies should support the health and safety needs of the majority of Americans, and we're clearly not there yet, as food recalls increase and healthy food gets more expensive.
Not that everyone has to start a backyard farm; I can't even talk the family into getting a beehive. But I think that we do need to question how our food is produced and where exactly our food comes from and, if necessary, pay more to support food that is healthier and safer until changes in regulations and subsidy policies make that a reality.
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